The present invention relates to a system and method for displaying visual advertisements with played data, and in particular, for displaying such advertisements in the format of video data while electronic files containing audio data and/or streaming audio data are played on a computer.
Audio data are stored on many different types of media in many different formats, and are then played by different audio players. Apart from dedicated audio devices such as cassette tape players and CD (compact disc) players, computers can also play audio data, which are stored in the form of electronic files and/or are provided as streaming data. These electronic files and streaming data are highly portable and can easily be transmitted through a network such as the Internet.
Unfortunately, the ease of transport of such data has also increased problems of piracy of recorded music, including unauthorized copying and distribution of such music without the payment of royalties to the owner of the rights to the music. For example, electronic files in the MP3 (MPEG audio layer 3) format can be used to store music in a compact form, which is then readily played by a computer which features a sound device and suitable software. Collections of such files, which have not received any authorization from the owner of the rights to these files, have been found on servers connected to the Internet, although many other such collections are assumed to exist. Since detecting fraud and theft through the Internet is quite difficult, particularly for the protection of such easily copied materials as audio files, a different business model for the sale of audio files through the Internet would be quite useful.
Unfortunately, such a different business model is not available currently. Instead, the technology which is currently available for the distribution of audio files, is now directed, for example, toward increasing the ease of distribution of the data and receiving revenue for such data, for example, for charging for downloading the data, and/or for playing the data. In addition, the current technology also attempts to prevent the unauthorized copying and theft of such data. Given the previously described difficulties with monitoring and policing the Internet, protective technologies may safely be assumed to be vulnerable to attack, since once a weakness in the security protection mechanism has been found, knowledge of such a weakness spreads rapidly through the Internet. Therefore, simply attempting to protect audio files from unauthorized distribution is not a useful solution to the problem of the theft of such data.
A more useful solution would provide an alternative mechanism for handling the unauthorized use of audio data, and more specifically, for the loss of revenues associated with such loss. However, such a solution is not currently available.
There is thus a need for, and it would be useful to have, a method and a system for providing revenue to the owner of the rights without attempting to control the unauthorized distribution of data such as audio data or video data or any other content, which also provides an alternative business model for obtaining revenue from such data, and specifically for obtaining revenue from audio files containing music.
The present invention is of a method and a system for playing a first type of data, including but not limited to, audio stream data or audio data in an electronic file for example, for the user while simultaneously displaying an advertisement in the form of a second type of data, such as video data for example. The system and method enable advertisements to be displayed while data is played by the computer of the user, for example while music is being played from an audio file by the computer of the user, thereby providing an alternative revenue source for the owner of the rights to the data such as the music. Furthermore, since the advertisement is in a data format, preferably video data, which is different from that of the audio music file, the display of such an advertisement does not interfere with the enjoyment of the music or other audio data being played.
In particular, the present invention is of a method and system for playing any first type of data while displaying the advertisement in the format of a second type of data. By xe2x80x9cplayingxe2x80x9d, it is meant that the content of the data is presented to the user by a hardware device, optionally in combination with software. Examples of the first type of data include, but are not limited to, audio data, video data, text data, graphic images and substantially any other form of data. The first type of data should be different from the second type of data in the displayed and/or stored format. Therefore, if the first type of data is audio data, the advertisement is preferably displayed as video data, text data and/or graphic images, or a combination thereof. However, if the first type of data is video data, then the advertisement is preferably displayed as text data, graphic images, any other type of data which is different than the video data, or a combination thereof.
According to the present invention, there is provided a system for playing data of a first data type while displaying an advertisement of a second data type, the first data type being different than the second data type, the system comprising: (a) a user computer for receiving the data of the first data type and the advertisement of the second data type; (b) a first data type display module for driving the user computer for playing the data of the first data type; and (c) an advertisement module for receiving the advertisement of the second data type and for driving the user computer to display the advertisement, such that playing the data of the first data type is coupled to displaying the advertisement. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9ccoupledxe2x80x9d refers to a link between playing the data of the first data type and displaying the advertisement, such that playing the data of the first data type triggers the display of the advertisement. The link may include, but is not limited to, simultaneously playing the data of the first data type and the advertisement, and/or retrieving the advertisement from the same source, such as the same server, as the data of the first data type, and/or playing the data of the first data type after or before the advertisement is displayed.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for playing data of a first data type while displaying an advertisement of a second data type, the first data type being different than the second data type, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a user computer for playing the data of the first data type and for displaying the advertisement of the second data type; (b) retrieving the data of the first data type; (c) retrieving the advertisement; (d) simultaneously playing the data of the first data type by the user computer while displaying the advertisement by the user computer; and (e) collecting an amount of revenue according to the step of displaying the advertisement.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cadvertisementxe2x80x9d refers to promotional data for promoting a particular product, service, individual, company, organization or other promoted item, as well as any other type of data which is pushed or promoted to the user by the operator of a server in a client-server system.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d refers to a computer for receiving data, optionally in combination with a software program. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cserverxe2x80x9d refers to a computer for serving data, optionally in combination with a software program.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb browserxe2x80x9d refers to any software program which can display text, graphics, or both, from Web pages on World Wide Web sites and/or from data stored locally to the computer of the user. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb pagexe2x80x9d refers to any document written in a mark-up language including, but not limited to, HTML (hypertext mark-up language) or VRML (virtual reality modeling language), dynamic HTML, XML (extended mark-up language) or related computer languages thereof, as well as to any collection of such documents reachable through one specific Internet address or at one specific World Wide Web site, or any document obtainable through a particular URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb sitexe2x80x9d refers to at least one Web page, and preferably a plurality of Web pages, virtually connected to form a coherent group. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWeb serverxe2x80x9d refers to a computer or other electronic device which is capable of serving at least one Web page to a Web browser.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cvideo dataxe2x80x9d includes, but is not limited to, graphic still images, video stream data, animation, and displayed text data. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cnetworkxe2x80x9d refers to a connection between any two computers which permits the transmission of data.
Hereinafter, the phrase xe2x80x9cdisplay a Web pagexe2x80x9d includes all actions necessary to render at least a portion of the information on the Web page available to the computer user. As such, the phrase includes, but is not limited to, the static visual display of static graphical and/or textual information, the audible production of audio information, the animated visual display of animation and the visual display of video stream data.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cuserxe2x80x9d refers to the person who operates the system of the present invention by operating a computer, described below as the computer of the user.
Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9ccomputerxe2x80x9d refers to a combination of a particular computer hardware system and a particular software operating system. Examples of such hardware systems include those with any type of suitable data processor. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9ccomputerxe2x80x9d includes, but is not limited to, personal computers (PC) having an operating system such as DOS, Windows(trademark), OS/2(trademark) or Linux; Macintosh(trademark) computers; computers having JAVA(trademark)-OS as the operating system; and graphical workstations such as the computers of Sun Microsystems(trademark) and Silicon Graphics(trademark), and other computers having some version of the UNIX operating system such as AIX(trademark) or SOLARIS(trademark) of Sun Microsystems(trademark); a PalmPilot(trademark), a PilotPC(trademark), or any other handheld device; or any other known and available operating system. Hereinafter, the term xe2x80x9cWindows(trademark)xe2x80x9d includes but is not limited to Windows95(trademark), Windows 3.x(trademark) in which xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d is an integer such as xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d, Windows NT(trademark), Windows98(trademark), Windows CE(trademark) and any upgraded versions of these operating systems by Microsoft Corp. (USA).
For the present invention, a software application could be written in substantially any suitable programming language, which could easily be selected by one of ordinary skill in the art. The programming language chosen should be compatible with the computer by which the software application is executed, and in particular with the operating system of that computer. Examples of suitable programming languages include, but are not limited to, C, C++, Delphi(trademark) and Java. Furthermore, the functions of the present invention, when described as a series of steps for a method, could be implemented as a series of software instructions for being operated by a data processor, such that the present invention could be implemented as software, firmware or hardware, or a combination thereof.